The consultation has now closed.

We are seeking views on changes to the Code of Audit Practice. The consultation is running from 8 February to 7 March 2024.

The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 makes the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) responsible for the preparation and maintenance of the Code of Audit Practice. It gives the C&AG the power to issue guidance to auditors in support of the Code, to which auditors must have regard when carrying out their work. Schedule 6 of the 2014 Act requires that the Code be reviewed, and revisions considered, at least every five years. The current Code came into force on 1 April 2020.

We have summarised the proposed changes to the Code along with consultation questions and the draft Code text in the Code Consultation document.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) are holding related consultations. Find out more in our joint statement on proposals to clear the backlog and embed timely local audits.

How to respond

Please email your response to lacg@nao.org.uk by Thursday 7 March 2024.

When answering the consultation questions, it would be very helpful if you could please refer as far as possible to the relevant Chapter of the draft Code and paragraph(s) and also provide additional explanation and detail where appropriate, to help us understand the basis for your comments.

You do not need to respond to all the consultation questions set out in the consultation document; we welcome brief or partial responses addressing only those issues where you wish to put forward a view. If there are further observations you would like to make in addition to the questions included in this consultation, however, feel free to include these in your response.

We may draw on your responses when explaining how we have acted on the consultation, or if we need to follow up matters raised with some or all other respondents. Therefore, your comments will be regarded as public unless you let us know that they should not be. If so, please let us know when you submit your response whether you consider all or part of your submission to be confidential.

Code of audit practice